Saving the History of those who Saved the World

The Mighty Endeavor is an initiative of Veterans’ Legacies, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit created to provide an online resource for students, educators and the general public. Veterans' Legacies is dedicated to the collection of veterans’ stories in order to preserve and share them for generations to come.

The Mighty Endeavor is a collaborative effort to collect, preserve, and share the stories of those who served during World War II. The project will call upon individuals and groups to interview, research, and gather details of the men and women of the Greatest Generation.

WHY NOW?

It is estimated that we are losing more than 350 WWII veterans every day, and in just a few years, the oldest living veterans will have passed. With the number of WWII veterans fast diminishing, Veterans’ Legacies has launched “The Mighty Endeavor” to collect stories of these veterans before they are all gone. In the case of our WWII history, the biographies, images and video clips are gathered from relatives or closed friends of veterans who have passed.

WE NEED YOU!

With your help, Oregon will become the first state in the nation with a historical account of every WWII veteran who enlisted from our state. This effort will be replicated in other states, using Oregon’s experience as a model.

The Mighty Endeavor website offers a downloadable curriculum to guide educators in classroom instruction and facilitation. The curriculum also provides instructions for general directions for the research, interview and upload processes for the Veterans' Legacies database.

VETERANS' LEGACIES

Veterans’ Legacies is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created to provide an online resource for students, educators and the general public. Veterans' Legacies is dedicated to the collection of veterans’ stories in order to preserve and share them for generations to come.. To search or contribute to this free database, go to www.veteranslegacies.com.

“Creating the next generation of historians, journalists, archivists and filmmakers by preserving our past.”

WHY NOW?

Each day we lose hundreds of the few remaining WWII veterans. The Mighty Endeavor is charged with collecting and sharing the stories of those who were part of the Greatest Generation. We are working urgently to engage communities around the state to help gather first and second-hand accounts of our veterans.

Engaging with our past teaches many soft skills transferable to many vocations. In addition to building skills, individuals will improve their ability listen to older people, develop empathy, and create strong writing and documentation skills sets. For many veterans, providing an opportunity to share their experiences promotes both healing and understanding.

TECHNOLOGY

The Veterans’ Legacies project was designed and launched in 2012. The database is easy to use, but very complex to build. It is a wiki-enabled, rules-driven aggregation platform that enables the mass importation of content. In an ongoing effort to improve the user experience on the site, we welcome feedback so that we may make improvements. We aim to make it as easy as possible for individuals to share stories, images and details of our veterans. The database, online at www.veteranslegacies.com. We aim to create a place for learning, sharing and preserving history.